Sufficient Anonymity Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 (edited) So, I'm open to suggestions (not requests) for the design of the heavy adjustable landing gear.Had a think about reducing space required to stow gears, and this is what I came up with.Rather than swinging the leg up, with the gear block at the end remaining perpendicular to the main support, rotate the gear block so that it lies parallel to the support, then at that point, swing it up, and slide the piston at the front's upper attachment point further forward. This would mean the gear block would have to be split in half. If that were to look too flimsy, one could instead bring it in close to parallel with the main support, causing the assembly to take up slightly more room when stowed.I'll sort out some sketches as the above isn't the best of explanations, and I might knock something up in blender later, but my experience is kinda limited on that front (more used to handing CT scanned stuff, I'm afraid).EDIT: Now with proof that vet students have just as bad handwriting as doctors...Javascript is disabled. View full album Edited February 11, 2015 by SufficientAnonymity Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anister Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 (edited) What about this? [-----] .ooioo (ignore that dot, needed for formatting)------------ where the wheels actually pull upwards into the bay, like with a piston: [ooioo]------------courtesy of my amazing ASCII skills Edited February 11, 2015 by Anister Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcs123 Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 (edited) Yeah... that shuttle just needs stronger suspension spring and slightly stronger damper.So before I left in December, I made a few attempts at modelling heavy duty landing gear, but they ended up either just looking like scaled up versions of the first two, or wouldn't be able to be adjusted by any reasonable amount.Currently this is sitting in blender. As you can see, its ugly as heck since the gear bay has to be huge to accommodate 4 wheels.http://i.imgur.com/YwDOAQy.pngEdit: actually I took a look at it again, and with cheating (clipping), I can get it to fold into this gear bay:http://i.imgur.com/9O4aihe.png but still..So, I'm open to suggestions (not requests) for the design of the heavy adjustable landing gear.As for the plugin, I've started working on forking certain classes from Firespitter, with Snjo's permission, to fix ALG specific bugs and generally adjust it so it's geared more towards customizability, and to no longer have a dependency on FS.Anyways, I also want to say that mod development from me has slowed because I started working on another project, so thank you for your patience.Does not looking too bad, for me anyway . Suggestion: Why not make them a little bit wider ? For example, few post above I showed some of solutions to put 3 x medium gear on structural panel and then put that structural panel somewhere on craft, either on hull or wings. Everyone have different taste about it.So, instead of 3 gears next to each other, use width of gear so it is possible to attach two heavy gear on 2 x 2 m structural panel.That will solve many issues you have with more narrowed design. Also strength of one heavy gear should be like 3 x medium gears - just from expirience in creating heavy planes. Your mod already helped a lot with that.EDIT:Another suggestion. For same wheel type as on your pictures. Rotate them on two axes, not just one, when you need to fold wheels inside gearbox. Meaning one point of rotation is on leg near gear box, but you need second rotation point on leg near wheels.So, when you raise gear, leg rotates 90 degree to pitch up wheels, but at the same time wheels rotates also 90 degrees in a way that wheels keep position as they have on ground. This will require slightly longer gearbox instead wider, though. Edited February 11, 2015 by kcs123 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hodo Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 Usually what I do with heavy aircraft is this...Two sets back to back or side by side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcs123 Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 That is not heavy aircraft Nearly two such crafts are only payload for heavy craft Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hodo Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 That is not heavy aircraft Nearly two such crafts are only payload for heavy craft Those were the only two that I had pictures of the landing gear. LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZewelVonLelek Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 What about C130-like gear bay? single or double wheels on short legs, folding into an in-line 1,25m piece of fuselage? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcs123 Posted February 14, 2015 Share Posted February 14, 2015 (edited) Maybe you can borrow some ideas from keptin ? Look dev diary in KAX thread. Edited February 16, 2015 by kcs123 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keptin Posted February 14, 2015 Share Posted February 14, 2015 It's great to see something really cook up some enthusiasm! And I love seeing the different takes on a similar subject. Hey, we bringin' the heat!--modders represent. Gonna kick out some kickass gear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BahamutoD Posted February 15, 2015 Author Share Posted February 15, 2015 Thanks for the suggestions.SufficientAnonymity, that's pretty much how my current prototype works. I may just tweak what I have a little bit and move forward with it. I forgot to mention one constraint: Since the gear needs to be adjustable, and normal animations are kind of set in stone, the gear is animated through code/script, so the folding 'style' has to be pretty much the same as what you see in the currently available adjustable landing gear. It's kinda hard to explain but what I mean is, instead of animating the gear normally, how it works is when you deploy the gear, it tells the leg to rotate towards the user-defined leg angle, and same with the wheels and piston length. Otherwise, it wouldn't be able to fold out to your custom specifications. So - no complex folding animations.Keptin, those are some good lookin' gears Meanwhile, I've continued working on expanding adjustability, and so far I've added properly working scaling, and the ability to have negative leg angle. The latter is limited to +/- 30 degrees though.Scaling:Negative leg angle: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enceos Posted February 15, 2015 Share Posted February 15, 2015 Can't wait to get your latest version! ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riles Posted February 16, 2015 Share Posted February 16, 2015 Havinf issues with the Gear falling through the runway, Anyone know of a fix? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcs123 Posted February 16, 2015 Share Posted February 16, 2015 Havinf issues with the Gear falling through the runway, Anyone know of a fix?known bug. Make sure that you have properly installed firespitter plugin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alshain Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 Meanwhile, I've continued working on expanding adjustability, and so far I've added properly working scaling, and the ability to have negative leg angle. The latter is limited to +/- 30 degrees though.Scaling:http://i.imgur.com/hjkctGG.pngNegative leg angle:http://i.imgur.com/rrUZdOX.pngI can't wait for this. Having seen the coming stock wheels are going to be rubbish, we really need bigger landing gear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommygun Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 I'm so glad to hear that scaling will be working for these soon.That's a big jump for general useability. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybec Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 While your at it: Any chance you can make the heatshield toggle fully functional with deadly reentry? I can't bring myself to use any other kind of landing gear, but I've had to take to some rather... unpleasant deorbiting techniques (dive into atmo at ~45 degrees and pull an 8+g turn) to make sure I still have gear to land on when I reach the runwayNone of my scientists want to go on plane rides anymore.I can mimic the MM patch for the stock landing gear, but having the editor toggle be more than cosmetic would just be slick.Unless it already does this and my install is misconfigured, in which case feel free to tell me how much of an idiot I am. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarthWall Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 why cant I to land with this in off road? Everytime I try, the craft begin to spin, doesn't matter what config I use for it, or how many I use, or how soft I land, if the brakes or engines are on or off... ALWAYS the craft begin to spin after touch the ground.(sorry for my bad english) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blowfish Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 why cant I to land with this in off road? Everytime I try, the craft begin to spin, doesn't matter what config I use for it, or how many I use, or how soft I land, if the brakes or engines are on or off... ALWAYS the craft begin to spin after touch the ground.(sorry for my bad english)I have had no trouble landing on relatively flat terrain. What happens when you land? Hard to say exactly what is wrong, but you might try adjusting the spring and damper on the gear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
futrtrubl Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 why cant I to land with this in off road? Everytime I try, the craft begin to spin, doesn't matter what config I use for it, or how many I use, or how soft I land, if the brakes or engines are on or off... ALWAYS the craft begin to spin after touch the ground.(sorry for my bad english)How fast are you going when you land?Sometimes there can be a problem (with stock gear too) where if there is too much down force on the front gear it will cause loss of control. Make sure if you are using flaps that you have forward flaps angling up. However this problem usually shows when taking off too.Edward Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarthWall Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 How fast are you going when you land?Sometimes there can be a problem (with stock gear too) where if there is too much down force on the front gear it will cause loss of control. Make sure if you are using flaps that you have forward flaps angling up. However this problem usually shows when taking off too.EdwardI think 65 - 75 m/s is slow enough. And yes, even with a big espace between the landing gears it happen. And also this isn't about weight, because I was trying with a little plane mk1.- - - Updated - - -I have had no trouble landing on relatively flat terrain. What happens when you land? Hard to say exactly what is wrong, but you might try adjusting the spring and damper on the gear.Seems like just one wheel brake, and my craft begin to spin even if I not use the brakes or disable they. But it just happens when I land in anywhere out of runway =/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
futrtrubl Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 I think 65 - 75 m/s is slow enough. And yes, even with a big espace between the landing gears it happen. And also this isn't about weight, because I was trying with a little plane mk1.- - - Updated - - -Seems like just one wheel brake, and my craft begin to spin even if I not use the brakes or disable they. But it just happens when I land in anywhere out of runway =/It's not about the space between landing gear or plane weight, it's about the aerodynamics of the plane. And from what you have said it sounds like the issue.I think we need to see your plane to tell you more.Edward Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blowfish Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 Seems like just one wheel brake, and my craft begin to spin even if I not use the brakes or disable they. But it just happens when I land in anywhere out of runway =/Is the wheel sagging, or is the joint between the wheel and the craft flexing? If the wheel is sagging you probably want to increase the spring constant in the tweakables menu. If the joint is flexing then you might want to strut the wheel to the hull. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarthWall Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 It's not about the space between landing gear or plane weight, it's about the aerodynamics of the plane. And from what you have said it sounds like the issue.I think we need to see your plane to tell you more.EdwardThere is: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blowfish Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 I think you've set the damper too high. You'll need to experiment to get a good value but if the damper is too high relative to the spring then bumps will never reach equilibrium and one side will inevitably sag, causing you to rotate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarthWall Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 I think you've set the damper too high. You'll need to experiment to get a good value but if the damper is too high relative to the spring then bumps will never reach equilibrium and one side will inevitably sag, causing you to rotate.I tried in many configurations, but thanks, I will try again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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